No Excuse

Been rather busy recently. However, the daily rush hour times in the morning and evenings sparked me to say something about the people that like to say "excuse me". Unfortunately, all my encounters with these "excuse me" people thus far have been women of all ages. Perhaps men just do not like to speak, yet this is much better in some situations when "excuse me" no longer becomes a polite request. It has got me wondering which is more polite, to shut up and not expect to be excused when there is practically no way you can be excused, or to demand to be excused.

One famous example, while at a particularly long bus stop during the rush hour is illustrated below.

Two buses were aligned at the bus stop with passengers queueing to get on board during the rush hour (blue arrows). I was among those queueing in the bus on the right. Along came this girl, probably a student, running for the bus on the left in the direction of the red arrow. Now note that both queues are pretty long, there is no way her bus on the left is going to leave anytime soon. Upon clashing head on with the people queueing for the bus on the right. She said impatiently "excuse me!" right beside me. I was totally disgusted. There is no way this girl cannot see that there is no room for her to be excused. Furthermore, she could easily have circumvented the queue from the back to join the queue on the left. What nerve to demand that she be excused?

For a moment I pondered, should I tell her, "No, you may not be"? Alas it was the turn for me to squeeze up the bus so I plainly ignored her. Leaving her to wonder who was being rude. Sadly, "excuse me", an originally polite expression has turned into an unthoughtful demand. Furthermore, there is no doubt in my head who that girl thought was being rude. Absolutely preposterous!...